BACKGROUND The recent literature suggests that free radicals and reactive oxygen species may account for many pathologies, including those of the nervous system. MATERIALS AND METHODS The influence of various reactive oxygen species on the rate of glutamate uptake by astrocytes was investigated on monolayers of primary cultures of mouse cortical astrocytes. RESULTS Hydrogen peroxide and per...

Local inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) synthesis withl-arginine analogs such as N G-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME) decreased red blood cell velocity ( V RBC) in capillaries and increased leukocyte adhesion in postcapillary venules in rat skeletal muscle. The goal of the present study was to determine the mechanism of this response tol-NAME. Using intravital videomicroscopy, we examined b...

Chloroplast development requires accurate spatio-temporal expression of plastid genes. The regulation of plastid genes mediated by plastid-encoded RNA polymerase (PEP) is rather complex, and its related mechanism remains largely unclear. Here, we report the identification of a novel protein that is essential for plant development, PEP-Related Development Arrested 1 (PRDA1). Knock-out of PRDA1 i...

Although thalidomide has been shown to improve anemia in some patients with myelodysplastic syndromes and stimulates erythropoietin in patients with multiple myeloma, thalidomide's specific effects on gamma-globin gene expression during erythroid differentiation have not been studied. Here, we investigated the effects of thalidomide on gamma-globin gene expression and the involved signaling pat...

We investigated the afferent vagal pathways mediating respiratory reflexes evoked by reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the lungs of anesthetized rats. Spontaneous inhalation of 0.2% aerosolized H(2)O(2) acutely evoked initial bradypnea followed by delayed tachypnea, which was frequently mixed with delayed augmented inspiration. The initial response was abolished after perivagal capsaicin treatme...

BACKGROUND Oxidative stress increases in hypertension. The aim of this study was to determine whether reactive oxygen species (ROS) are increased in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) in the brainstem, where the vasomotor center is located, in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP), and, if so, to determine whether the increased ROS contribute to neural mechanisms of hyperte...

A kinetic study of the aqua substitution in the [TcO(OH(2))(CN)(4)](-) complex by different thiourea ligands (TU = thiourea, NMTU = N-methyl thiourea, NNDMTU = N, N'-dimethylthiourea) yielded second-order formation rate constants (25 degrees C) as follows [NNDMTU, NMTU, TU, respectively]: k(f) = 11.5 +/- 0.1, 11.38 +/- 0.04, and 7.4 +/- 0.1 M(-1)s(-1), with activation parameters: Delta H(#) (k(...

We investigated the neural and chemical mechanisms contributing to the immediate ventilatory responses to laryngeal exposure to wood smoke in anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats. Five milliliters of wood smoke were delivered into a functionally isolated larynx at a constant flow rate of 1.4 ml/s while the animals breathed spontaneously. Within 1 s after exposure, laryngeal wood smoke consistently ...

Chloroplasts arose from a cyanobacterial endosymbiont and multiply by division. In algal cells, chloroplast division is regulated by the cell cycle so as to occur only once, in the S phase. Chloroplasts possess multiple copies of their own genome that must be replicated during chloroplast proliferation. In order to examine how chloroplast DNA replication is regulated in the green alga Chlamydom...

Inhaled cigarette smoke (CS) triggers airway reflexes that are thought to result from the activation of lung vagal C-fiber afferents (LVCAs) via the action of reactive oxygen species in rats. We investigated the role of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) and P2X receptors in LVCA activation. Activities of LVCAs were recorded in anesthetized and artificially ventilated rats. Airway...